150. Preserve Your Life From Fear: Meditate on His Goodness

Psalms 64:1-6 NKJV Hear my voice, O God, in my meditation; Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. (2) Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, From the rebellion of the workers of iniquity, (3) Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, And bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words, (4) That they may shoot in secret at the blameless; Suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear. (5) They encourage themselves in an evil matter; They talk of laying snares secretly; They say, “Who will see them?” (6) They devise iniquities: “We have perfected a shrewd scheme.” Both the inward thought and the heart of man are deep.

Psalms 64:10 NKJV The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and trust in Him. And all the upright in heart shall glory.

There is a place of protection from slander and harm from those who seek to destroy your name or diminish your work and credibility. That doesn’t mean people won’t talk bad about your or persecute you, but it does mean that there is a place where you can walk free from fear of any negative effects of those attacks. Verse 10 tells us this place is in the Lord and trust in Him.

Psalm 64:1 in the Message Bible reads, “Listen and help, O God. I’m reduced to a whine And a whimper, obsessed with feelings of doomsday.” This verse reminds me of a number of conversations I’ve had with church folk over the years. I remember one man came to me whining, whimpering, and obsessed with fear that he was about to lose his job. He told me he had some co-workers who were spreading lies about him to his boss and making things difficult for him at work.

He said he tried reasoning with them to no avail and even went to his boss who began to blame him for his own troubles, saying he had received numerous complaints about him and even began to criticize his performance threatening suspension and termination as corrective action. By the time we talked he was consumed with fear and planning how to tell his wife that he had lost his job (which he hadn’t yet).

I talked to him about making a decision to quit trying fix his problems with the other employees and instead of worrying about what they said about instead to, “Fix (his) thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Phil 4:8)” We found a couple of Scripture that he would meditate on about the Lord’s protection and about his nature in Christ and he committed to ignore the rumor mill about him, focus on doing his job unto the Lord, meditate on the Scriptures we found and sing songs of praise throughout his shifts. That’s what the second half of verse 10 means when it says, “…the upright in heart shall glory.” It means they will rejoice! The Message Bible says, “…make praise your habit.”

The next week, he told me things had gotten better and that the night before his boss called him into his office and complemented his efficiency. After the 3rd week one of the guys that were causing him problems and spreading lies about him had quit and another was transferred to a different store. Within another month he was brought in for additional equipment training to serve as a backup in another area, which is something you don’t do for a guy you are looking to let go.

Just like David, he quit meditating on the thing he feared. He fixed his mind on the Lord and found peace in his trust in the Lord. Then he commenced to stay in that place by meditating on the Word, praising Him, and doing what was before him to do as unto the Lord. Decide to meditate on the goodness of God and trust in Him today. You may have to force yourself to meditate on a Scripture for a while or keep yourself singing a faith filled song, but if you’ll stay steady you’ll Fear Not!